Computers and Structures 9495 (2012) 4553

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Computers and Structures

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A new trigonometric layerwise shear deformation theory for the nite element
analysis of laminated composite and sandwich plates
J.L. Mantari, A.S. Oktem, C. Guedes Soares
Centre for Marine Technology and Engineering (CENTEC), Instituto Superior Tcnico, Technical University of Lisbon, Av. Rovisco Pais, 1049-001 Lisbon, Portugal

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: A layerwise nite element formulation of a newly developed higher-order shear deformation theory for
Received 30 June 2011 the exure of thick multilayered plates is presented. The proposed trigonometric layerwise shear defor-
Accepted 14 December 2011 mation theory accounts for: (a) non-linear and constant variation of in-plane and transverse displace-
Available online 16 January 2012
ment respectively through the panel thickness; (b) adequate transverse shear deformation and satisfy
transverse shear traction free conditions on the top and the bottom surfaces of the plate. The accuracy
Keywords: of the present code is ascertained by comparing it with the exact solution and various available results
Higher order shear deformation theory
in the literature.
Trigonometric displacement eld
Layerwise nite element
2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Laminated composites
Sandwich

1. Introduction However, the abovementioned theories may be not sufcient

Composite structures have an increasing use in many engineer-
ing elds such as marine, aerospace, automotive, civil, sport and
other applications. This is because of their high performance and
reliability due to high strength-to-weight and high stiffness-to-
weight ratios, excellent fatigue strength, resistance to corrosion
(e.g. glass ber composites), and most importantly the design ex-
ibility also known as tailoring the materials for desired applications.
With the increased use of laminated composite and sandwich struc-
tures, there is a need to develop efcient and reliable mathematical
models, deformation theories, and analysis methods to predict the
short and long-term behavior of the multilayer composite struc-
tures under a variety of loading and environmental conditions.
Many theories have been developed to analyze composite struc-
tures. Among equivalent single layer theories, there are mainly
three major theories; namely the classical lamination theory
(CLT) which is based on the assumptions of Kirchoffs plate theory
[16] which neglects the interlaminar shear deformation, the rst
order shear deformation theory (FSDT) [712] assumes constant
transverse shear deformation through the entire thickness of the
laminate and violates stress free boundary conditions at the top
and bottom surfaces of the panel. More accurate theories such as
higher order theories (HSDT) assume quadratic, cubic or higher
variations of surface-parallel displacements through the entire
thickness of the laminates to model the behavior of the structure
for thick to thin regions [1330].
Corresponding author. Tel.: +351 218 417607; fax: +351 218 474015.
E-mail address: guedess@mar.ist.utl.pt (C. Guedes Soares).
if local effects are important or accuracy in the calculation of the
transverse stresses is required. For that reason, more advanced
plate theories were developed to include zigzag effects
[22,31,32]. Layerwise models have also an important role when
the abovementioned approaches fail to predict local effects
[3335]. This advanced method is an accurate rened method
but with the disadvantage of expensive computing time. More
detailed literature review may be found for various shear deforma-
tion theories and nite element approaches for composite and
sandwich plates and shells using equivalent single layer and
layerwise theories in excellent research papers presented by Reddy
[36,37], Carrera [38,39], Kreja [40] and Altenbach [41]. The well-
described unied formulation, initially presented by Carrera [31]
and recently extended by Demasi [32,35,4245], describes
precisely and clearly the models, types and class of theories.
Carrera [46] presented free vibration analyses of layered plates,
cylindrical and spherical shells made of isotropic and orthotropic
layers for simply supported boundary condition. The transverse
normal stress effects were included in the displacement model by
allowing different polynomial orders. It was concluded that for
the accurate analyses of the vibrational response of highly aniso-
tropic, thick and very thick shells requires layerwise description
and interlaminar continuous transverse shear and normal stresses
were crucial for the modied classical models. Carrera and Brischet-
to [47] presented an extensive survey for a variety of plate theories
and evaluated the bending and vibration of sandwich structures.
The main drawbacks of the equivalent single layer analysis for the
soft-core sandwich structures were specied. Particularly, for the
high values of face-to-core ratios higher order theories were found

0045-7949/$ - see front matter 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.compstruc.2011.12.003
46 J.L. Mantari et al. / Computers and Structures 9495 (2012) 4553
to be unsuitable and it was stated that even the error can be double
by the neglecting the through-thickness deformation effects and
CLT and FSDT were failed to analyze the sandwich structures.
Recently, Carrera and Petrolo [48] by using Carrera unied for-
mulation (CUF) and an asymptotic expansion method discussed
the effectiveness of higher-order terms in rened beam theories.
CUF allows to understand and to quantify the importance of the
terms used in the displacement eld. The effect of each displace-
ment variable in the solution was investigated by comparing the
error obtained accounting and removing the variable in the plate
equations in another work of Carrera and Petrolo [49]. One impor-
tant conclusion that can be inferred for the orthotropic plates was
the additional term(s) used in the transverse displacement to con-
sider the stretching of the panel highly affects the normal stress
(rxx) results in a positive way, but they have no inuence on the
other considered results. In similar fashion, Carrera et al. [79] by
using CUF have found the so-called best plate theory, but this time
considering an axiomatic hypothesis method. More detailed infor-
mation and applications of CUF can be found in the very recent
books authored by Carrera et al. [80,81].
Abovementioned CUF approach was used by Carrera et al. [50]
for the analysis of various displacement models using the nite
elements for static analysis of laminated plates. Errors related to
the models were specied in terms of normal and shear stresses.
For example the CLT theory was found to be good enough to obtain
the normal stress rxx while it was not suitable to detect correctly
the transverse displacement (uz) and out-of-plane shear stress
(sxz, syz). It was also stated that the layerwise theories and zig
zag theories were required for more precise results for laminated
structures. Additional conclusions were also inferred as mentioned
in reference [49].
Regarding to trigonometric higher order shear deformation the-
ories, it is well-known that the rst trigonometric shape strain
function was introduced by Levy [74]. Then, the TPT (trigonometric
plate theory) were corroborated and assessed by Stein [75] (after al-
most one century) and later extensively used by Touratier [51] and
co-workers. Later, this HSDT, which introduces the sinus function,
was used in several higher order layerwise and zigzag shear defor-
mation theories [5255]. Moreover, advanced numerical calcula-
tions such as nite element [55,56] and meshless methods
[28,57,58] were also implemented by using Touratier theory [51].
Recently, for the rst time, Neves et al. [76,77] and Ferreira et al.
[78] presented meshless solutions by using CUF with non-polyno-
mial shape strain functions (sinus) to analyze static and dynamic
behaviour of classical and advanced (e.g. functionally graded) com-
posites. Therefore, it can be said that there are evidences of the de-
mand of trigonometric shear deformation theories, mainly because
they are richer than polynomial functions, simple, more accurate,
and the free surface boundary conditions can be guaranteed a priori.
With respect to nite elements applied to bending analysis by
using the abovementioned theories, FSDT and HSDTs have been ex-
plored since 1960s. The FSDT requires only displacement (C0) con-
tinuity across the interelement boundaries, which is suitable for
the formulation of general nite elements. However, it requests
arbitrary shear correction factors and presents shear locking prob-
lems for thin plates. Many HSDTs , among the ones developed by
Reddy and Liu [17], Touratier [51], Soldatos [59] and Karama
et al. [60], account for approximately parabolic transverse shear
deformation and satisfy transverse shear traction free conditions
on the top and the bottom surfaces of the plate. Moreover, these
theories do not require any shear correction factor. However these
plate theories have all positive features except one drawback,
which is found in a situation when nite element analysis is ap-
plied to this plate model, because these theories require continuity
of the transverse displacement as well as its derivatives (C1 conti-
nuity) along the interelement boundary, which poses difculties in
developing simple conforming quadrilateral element. A good sur-
vey of non-conforming nite element models of HSDTs, such as
the one developed by Reddy and Liu [17], can be found in Sheinkh
et al. [61,62], Ngo et al. [63] and Kulkarni and Kapuria [64].
Analytical, closed form solutions may predict exactly the displace-
ment and stresses and can be used to check the accuracy of other
numerical methods such as the nite element models [65,66]. Pagano
[67] provided an exact solution for the problem of rectangular ortho-
tropic sandwich plate subjected to a laterally distributed load. This
solution was used as benchmark for the comparison to various
numerical methods such as, nite differences, nite element, and
other approximation solutions [68]. Srinivas [69] also provided exact
solutions, which were extensively used as reference for various
numerical calculations, such as meshless methods [28,57,58].
According to the authors knowledge, this paper presents for the
rst time a tangential layerwise trigonometric shear deformation
theory for modelling the laminated composites and sandwiches
plates. The new displacement eld accounts for approximately par-
abolic distribution of the transverse shear deformation and satises
the transverse shear traction free conditions on the top and bottom
surfaces of the plate, thus a shear correction factor is not required.
By enforcing the free conditions on upper and lower surfaces and
interlaminar continuity conditions of the transverse shear stresses,
the number of total unknowns does not depend on the number of
layers of the laminate. Therefore, the discrete element chosen is a
four-nodded quadrilateral with seven-degrees-of-freedom per
node. For the nite element formulation, the seven-degrees-of-
freedom uo ; v o ; wo ; @w=@x; @w=@y; hxc ; hyc are assumed and they are
independent of each other. Therefore, a C0 Lagrangian isoparametric
faceted quadrilateral element to analyze the static behaviour of the
general laminated composite and sandwich plates is introduced.
The accuracy of the present code is ascertained by comparing it
with Srinivas [69] exact solution and with various numerical calcu-
lations available in the literature such as the nite element [70,71]
and the meshless solutions [28,57,58,72].
2. Higher order layerwise displacement eld
In this paper, the equivalent single layer shear deformation the-
ory developed by Mantari et al. [73], which produces similar re-
sults as the shear deformation theory presented by Reddy and
Liu [17] and Touratier [51], is extended to a layerwise shear defor-
mation theory for the nite element analysis of sandwich and com-
posite laminated plates.
The sandwich laminated plate, composed of nite number of
orthotropic layers of different thickness is shown in Fig. 1. The in-
plane displacement continuity of the present layerwise model is
guaranteed by obtaining the summations of the continuous mathe-
matical terms present in the model at each local layer coordinate as
in Fig. 1. In order to reduce the degrees of freedom, the transverse
shear stress continuity is also imposed at the layer interfaces.
The displacement eld for the inner layers (e.g. h1, h2, etc.) is gi-
ven as follows:
X c
hc x hin x @w
uin uo hc  hk hxk  hin zhxin  z ain
2 kin1
2 @x
tan mz ain hxc ;
hc X c
hin y @w
v in v o hyc  hk hyk  hin zhyin  z ain
2 2 @y
kin1
tan mz ain hyc ;
win wo x; y: 1a c
where
X
c
hc hin
ain  hk  : 2
2 kin1 2
 J.L. Mantari et al. / Computers and Structures 9495 (2012) 4553 47

z z

w -z w tanmz 3x w u
x

h5 5x Layer 5
x x
h4 4x Layer 4
x x
3x
h3 Layer 3
o o
u x u x
h2 2x Layer 2
x x
h1 1x Layer 1
x x

Fig. 1. Mathematical terms in the modeling of the layerwise displacement eld.

hin and hc are the thicknesses of an inner layer and the core in Eq. By performing the transformation rule of stresses/strain be-
(2), respectively. tween the lamina and the laminate coordinate system as in
The displacement eld for the middle layer, considered as the Fig. 2, the stress-stressstrain relations in the global xyz coordi-
core of the sandwich laminate, is given as: nate system can be obtained as,
8 9k 2 3k 8 9k
< rxx > < exx >
@w > Q 11 Q 12 Q 16 >
uc uo  z ac zhxc tan mz ac hxc ; =
6 7
=
@x ryy 4 Q 12 Q 22 Q 26 5 eyy ;
@w >
: > >
:c >
v c v o  z ac zhyc tan mz ac hyc ;
@y
sxy ;b Q 16 Q 26 Q 66 xy
;
b

wc wo x; y: 3a c " #k ( )k
 k
sxz Q 55 Q 54 cxz
where in Eqs. (3ab), ac = 0. : 7a b
syz s Q 45 Q 44 cyx
Finally, the displacement eld for the outer layers (e.g. h4, h5, s
etc.), is given below: in which, r f rxx ryy sxy sxz syz g and e = {exx, eyy, cxy, cxz, cyz}
X
ex1 are the stresses and the linear strain vectors with respect to the
hc x hex x @w
uex uo  h hk hxk h zhxex  z aex laminate coordinate system and Q ij s are the plane stresses reduced
2 c kc
2 ex @x elastic constants in the global xyz coordinate system of the kth
tan mz aex hxc ; lamina, (see Fig. 2). The subscripts b and s stand for bending and
X
ex1 shear, respectively.
hc hex y @w
v ex v o  hyc hk hyk hex zhyex  z aex
2 kc
2 @y
3. Finite element formulation
tan mz aex hyc ;
wex wo x; y: 4a c In the present work, a four-nodded quadrilateral C0 continuous
where isoparametric element with seven-degrees-of-freedom per node is
employed. The generalized displacements included in the present
hc eX
x1
hex theory can be expressed as follows:
aex  hk : 5
2 kc
2 X
n
d Ni di : 8
hex and hc are the thicknesses of an outer layer and the core in Eqs. i1
(4) and (5), respectively.
In Eqs. (1ac), (3ac) and (4ac), uk and vk are the inplane dis- where d fuo ; v o ; wo ; @w=@x; @w=@y; hxc ; hyc gT ; di is the displacement
placements at any point (xk, yk, zk) in layer k 2 {1, 2, . . . , in, . . . , vector corresponding to node i, Ni is the shape function associated
c, . . . ex, . . . , l1, l}, uo and vo denote the inplane displacements of with the node i and n is the number of nodes per element, which
the point (x, y, 0) on the midplane of each layer, wo is the transverse is four in the present study. Considering the Eq. (6), the strain vector
deection, hyin ; hyex and hxin , hxex are the rotations of the normals to the {e} can be expressed in terms of d containing nodal degrees of free-
dom as,
midplane about the y and x axes, respectively, while hxc and hyc are
 k h i
the core rotations about the x and y axes. As mentioned above, in eb Bkb fdg;
order to reduce the degrees of freedom, the transverse shear stress h i
 k
continuity is imposed at the layer interfaces and hxin ; hyin ; hxex ; hyex are cs Bks fdg: 9a b
obtained and given as below:
!   ! where [B] is the straindisplacement matrix in the Cartesian coordi-
Q in1 hin Q in1 nate system.
hxin  55
hxin1 m sec m 2
ain
55
1 hxc ;
Q in
55
2 Q in
55
The [B] matrix can be divided in two parts, one which contains
!   ! the bending terms and other containing the shear terms, as
Q in1 hin Q in1
hyin  44
h y
in1 m sec 2
m  ain
44
 1 hyc ; follows:
Q in
44
2 Q in
44 h i h i h i
!   !
Q ex1 hex Q ex1 Bkb Bkm Bkm zBkb  tanmz a Bkb ;
hxex  55
h x
ex1 m sec 2
m  aex
55
 1 hxc ; h i h i
Q ex
55
2 Q ex
55 Bks Bks m sec2 mz a Bks ;
!   !
Q ex1 y hex Q ex1 a fain ; ac ; aex g; 10a c
hyex  44
h ex1 m sec 2
m  aex
44
 1 hyc :
Q ex
44
2 Q ex
44
where matrices of and Bkb Bks
(see Eq. 10(ab)), for the laminate
6a d example given in Section 4, are given in Appendix A.
48 J.L. Mantari et al. / Computers and Structures 9495 (2012) 4553

y
y
c
v
z, 3
3, z y
2

Laminate
1 w mid-plate

x b
(1, 2, 3) - Lamina reference axes h x
u c x
a
(x, y, z) - Laminate reference axes

Fig. 2. Laminate geometry with positive set of lamina/laminate reference axes, displacement components and ber orientation.

The potential energy Pe of the plate with a mid-surface area X The equilibrium equations can be obtained by minimizing Pe
and volume V, with a load vector P corresponding to the seven-de- with respect to {d} as,
grees-of-freedom of a point on the mid-plane, can be represented
K e fdg fPe g: 19
as,
Pe U s  W ext ; where [Ke] is the element stiffness matrix and {Pe} is the nodal load
Z Z vector.
1 1
Us eT rdV cT sdV In what follows, the problem under consideration is solved for
2 V 2 V
the simply supported boundary conditions and they are given at
l ZZZ
1X  k T h k i k  all four edges as follows:
eb Q b eb dxdydz
2 k1
ux; 0 ux; b v 0; y v a; y 0;
l ZZZ
1X  k T h k i k  wx; 0 wx; b w0; y wa; y 0;
cs Q s cs dxdydz;
2 k1 @w=@xx; 0 @w=@xx; b @w=@y0; y @w=@ya; y 0;
Z
W ext wo qdxdy: 11a c hcx x; 0 hcx x; b hcy 0; y hcy a; y 0:
X
20
Considering the Eqs. (8) and (9ab), the potential energy of an ele-
Integrations in Eq. (11ac) are carried out numerically by Gauss
ment can be rewritten as follows:
quadrature integration rule. A reduced integration technique is
1X l n o 1X l n o adopted for the calculations of the shear stiffness matrix in order
Pe fdgT K kbe fdg fdgT K kse fdg  fdgT fPe g; to avoid numerical disturbances such as shear locking, which
2 k1 2 k1
may appear in a full integration scheme. The stiffness matrix of
1
fdgT fK e gfdg  fdgT fPe g; 12ab all the elements is calculated and assembled together to form the
2 overall stiffness matrix [K] of the panel and then the static problem
where is solved.

K kbe K kmm K kmm K km m K kmb K km b K kbb K kbb K kb b

4. Numerical results and discussion
13
and A simply supported square sandwich plate is considered under
uniform load. The a/h ratio is taken as 10 [69]. It considers a simply
K kse K kss K kss K ks s ; 14 supported square sandwich plate under uniform load. The ratio of
Matrices of K kbe and K kse (see Eqs. (13), (14) are given in the following side to thickness, a/h is taken as 10. The sandwich laminate consid-
equations ers two outside layers (skins) of thickness h1 = h3 = 0.1 h and one
inner layer (core) of thickness h2 = 0.8 h. The skin orthotropic prop-
K kmm Bkm Q k Bkm f 1; K kmm 2 Bkm Q k Bkm f 1; K km m Bkm Q k Bkm f 1; erties are obtained by multiplying an integer, R, by the core ortho-
tropic properties, given by
K kmb 2 Bkm Q k Bkb f 2; K km b 2 Bkm Q k Bkb f 2; K kbb Bkb Q k Bkb f 3; 2 3
0:999781 0:231192 0 0 0
K kbb 2 Bkb Q k Bkb f 4; K kb b Bkb Q k Bkb f 5: 15 6 7
6 0:231192 0:524886 0 0 0 7
6 7
Q core
6
6 0 0 0:262931 0 0 7;
7
K kss Bks Q k Bks f 1; K kss 2 Bks Q k Bks f 6; K ks s Bks Q k Bks f 7; 6
4 0 0 0 0:266810 0
7
5
16 0 0 0 0 0:159914
Z hk
1;tanmz a;z2 ; z tanmz a; tan2 mz a; The skin properties are obtained by,
f 1; 2;3; 4; 5; 6; 7 dz;
hk1 m sec2 mz a; m2 sec4 mz a
17 Q skin RQ core : 21
ZZ Results are compared with exact results [69] and nite element
fPge Nwo T qdX: 18 results [70,71], trigonometric layerwise deformation theory with
X multiquadrics [57], trigonometric shear deformation theory and
 J.L. Mantari et al. / Computers and Structures 9495 (2012) 4553 49

Table 1
Maximum deection and stresses of a square sandwich plate under uniform load (R = 5).

Method 
w r 1xx r 2xx r 3xx r 1yy r 2yy r 3yy s1xz s2xz
(a/2, b/2, 0) (a/2, b/2, h/2) (a/2, b/2, 2h/5) (a/2, b/2, 2h/5) (a/2, b/2, h/2) (a/2, b/2, 2h/5) (a/2, b/2, 2h/5) (0, b/2, 0) (0, a/2, 2h/5)
Srinivas [69], exact solution 258.97 60.35 46.62 9.34 38.49 30.10 6.16 4.36 3.27
Present, layerwise, DOF = 7, N = 21 257.93 60.22 46.48 9.30 38.49 30.11 6.02 4.12 3.37
Present, layerwise, DOF = 7, N = 15 256.71 60.13 46.40 9.28 38.46 30.07 6.01 4.03 3.29
Present, layerwise,DOF = 7, N = 11 254.56 60.01 46.23 9.25 38.42 29.99 6.00 3.91 3.19
Pandya and Kant HSDT [70] 258.74 62.38 46.91 9.38 38.93 30.33 6.07 3.09 2.60
Pandya and Kant FSDT [70] 236.10 61.87 49.50 9.90 36.65 29.32 5.86 3.31 2.44
Ferreira and Barbosa [71] 258.74 59.21 45.61 9.12 37.88 29.59 5.92 3.59 3.59
Roque et al. [57], layerwise, N = 21 259.12 60.34 46.57 9.31 38.55 30.15 6.03 4.54 3.38
Roque et al. [57], layerwise, N = 15 258.72 60.26 46.51 9.30 38.50 30.11 6.02 4.46 3.33
Roque et al. [57], layerwise, N = 11 257.12 59.99 46.31 9.26 38.33 29.98 6.00 4.29 3.22
Ferreira et al. [28], layerwise, N = 21 257.00 60.40 46.97 9.39 38.46 30.22 6.04 4.55 3.41
Ferreira et al. [28], layerwise, N = 15 256.50 60.30 46.90 9.38 38.40 30.18 6.04 4.45 3.34
Ferreira et al. [28], layerwise, N = 11 254.91 60.03 46.69 9.34 38.23 30.04 6.01 4.28 3.23
Xiang et al. (Levinson) [58] 253.72 59.95 46.66 9.33 38.19 30.02 6.00 3.64
Xiang et al. (Touratier) [58] 253.99 60.12 47.10 9.42 38.25 30.19 6.04 3.71
Xiang et al. (Karama) [58] 253.64 60.12 46.70 9.34 38.24 30.02 6.00 3.76

Table 2
Maximum deection and stresses of a square sandwich plate under uniform load (R = 10).

Method 
w r 1xx r 2xx r 3xx r 1yy r 2yy r 3yy s1xz s2xz
(a/2, b/2, 0) (a/2, b/2, h/2) (a/2, b/2, 2h/5) (a/2, b/2, 2h/5) (a/2, b/2, h/2) (a/2, b/2, 2h/5) (a/2, b/2, 2h/5) (0, b/2, 0) (0, a/2, 2h/5)
Srinivas [69], exact solution 159.38 65.33 48.86 4.90 43.57 33.41 3.50 4.10 3.52
Present, layerwise, DOF = 7, N = 21 158.84 65.17 48.68 4.87 43.64 33.49 3.35 3.93 3.53
Present, layerwise, DOF = 7, N = 15 158.16 65.06 48.58 4.86 43.61 33.45 3.34 3.84 3.45
Present, layerwise, DOF = 7, N = 11 156.98 64.94 48.36 4.84 43.59 33.35 3.33 3.72 3.35
Pandya and Kant HSDT [70] 152.33 64.65 51.31 5.13 42.83 33.97 3.40 3.15 2.60
Pandya and Kant FSDT [70] 131.10 67.80 54.24 4.42 40.10 32.08 3.21 3.15 2.68
Ferreira and Barbosa [71] 159.40 64.16 47.72 4.77 42.97 42.90 3.29 3.52 3.52
Roque et al. [57], layerwise, N = 21 159.50 65.28 48.28 4.88 43.68 33.52 3.35 4.29 3.67
Roque et al. [57], layerwise, N = 15 159.29 65.22 48.72 4.87 43.64 33.49 3.35 4.22 3.62
Roque et al. [57], layerwise, N = 11 158.32 64.93 48.51 4.85 43.45 33.35 3.34 4.06 3.49
Ferreira et al. [28], layerwise, N = 21 155.03 65.37 49.82 4.98 43.27 33.60 3.36 4.28 3.67
Ferreira et al. [28], layerwise, N = 15 154.77 65.29 49.76 4.98 43.22 33.56 3.36 4.21 3.63
Ferreira et al. [28], layerwise, N = 11 153.83 65.00 49.55 4.96 43.03 33.42 3.34 4.05 3.51
Xiang et al. (Levinson) [58] 152.66 65.01 49.68 4.97 42.95 33.39 3.34 3.45
Xiang et al. (Touratier) [58] 153.14 65.05 50.21 5.02 43.02 33.65 3.37 3.64
Xiang et al. (Karama) [58] 153.36 65.10 49.50 4.95 43.06 33.38 3.34 3.84

Table 3
Maximum deection and stresses of a square sandwich plate under uniform load (R = 15).

Method 
w r 1xx r 2xx r 3xx r 1yy r 2yy r 3yy s1xz s2xz
(a/2, b/2, 0) (a/2, b/2, h/2) (a/2, b/2, 2h/5) (a/2, b/2, 2h/5) (a/2, b/2, h/2) (a/2, b/2, 2h/5) (a/2, b/2, 2h/5) (0, b/2, 0) (0, a/2, 2h/5)
Srinivas [69], exact solution 121.72 66.79 48.30 3.24 46.42 34.96 2.49 3.96 3.58
Present, layerwise, DOF = 7, N = 21 121.37 66.60 48.10 3.21 46.53 35.07 2.34 3.82 3.56
Present, layerwise, DOF = 7, N = 15 120.89 66.49 48.00 3.20 46.51 35.03 2.34 3.74 3.48
Present, layerwise, DOF = 7, N = 11 120.07 66.36 47.75 3.18 46.51 34.91 2.33 3.63 3.38
Pandya and Kant HSDT [70] 110.43 66.62 51.97 3.47 44.92 35.41 2.36 3.04 2.70
Pandya and Kant FSDT [70] 90.85 70.04 56.03 3.75 41.39 33.11 2.21 3.09 2.76
Ferreira and Barbosa [71] 121.82 65.65 47.09 3.14 45.85 34.42 2.29 3.47 3.47
Roque et al. [57], layerwise, N = 21 121.88 66.73 48.20 3.21 46.59 35.11 2.34 4.17 3.74
Roque et al. [57], layerwise, N = 15 121.68 66.66 48.15 3.21 46.54 35.07 2.34 4.10 3.71
Roque et al. [57], layerwise, N = 11 120.95 66.38 47.96 3.20 46.33 34.93 2.33 3.95 3.58
Ferreira et al. [28], layerwise, N = 21 115.46 66.87 50.04 3.34 45.72 35.15 2.34 4.18 3.77
Ferreira et al. [28], layerwise, N = 15 115.27 66.80 49.99 3.33 45.67 35.11 2.34 4.11 3.73
Ferreira et al. [28], layerwise, N = 11 114.57 66.51 49.78 3.32 45.47 34.96 2.33 3.95 3.60
Xiang et al. (Levinson) [58] 113.09 66.54 50.04 3.34 45.29 34.90 2.33 3.25
Xiang et al. (Touratier) [58] 113.96 66.54 50.68 3.38 45.43 35.28 2.35 3.47
Xiang et al. (Karama) [58] 114.59 66.62 49.66 3.31 45.55 34.92 2.33 3.71
50 J.L. Mantari et al. / Computers and Structures 9495 (2012) 4553

0.05 0.05

0.025 0.025

z 0 z 0

-0.025 -0.025

-0.05 -0.05
-0.25 -0.125 0 0.125 0.25 -60 -50 -40 -30 -20 -10 0 10 20 30 40 50 60
u
xx
0.05 0.05

0.025 0.025

z 0 z 0

-0.025 -0.025

-0.05 -0.05
-40 -30 -20 -10 0 10 20 30 40 -4 -3.5 -3 -2.5 -2 -1.5 -1 -0.5 0

yy xz

Fig. 3. Displacement and normalized stresses for a sandwich square plate (N = 21, a/h = 10, R = 5).

0.05 0.05

0.025 0.025

z 0 z 0

-0.025 -0.025

-0.05 -0.05
-0.1 -0.05 0 0.05 0.1 -70 -60 -50 -40 -30 -20 -10 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70
u
xx
0.05 0.05

0.025 0.025

z 0 z 0

-0.025 -0.025

-0.05 -0.05
-50 -40 -30 -20 -10 0 10 20 30 40 50 -4 -3.5 -3 -2.5 -2 -1.5 -1 -0.5 0

yy xz

Fig. 4. Displacement and normalized stresses for a sandwich square plate (N = 21, a/h = 10, R = 15).

multiquadrics [28], higher-order shear formulation with multi- The maximum deection and stress are non-dimensionalized as
quadrics [72] and meshless method and various shear deformation follows:
theories [58].
 J.L. Mantari et al. / Computers and Structures 9495 (2012) 4553 51

a a 0:999781    
a b h 1 a b 2h 1 chosen is a four-nodded quadrilateral with seven-degrees-of-free-
w w ; ;0 ; r  1xx r1xx ; ;  ; r  2xx r1xx ; ; ;
2 2 hq 2 2 2 q 2 2 5 q dom per node. The accuracy of the present theory is ascertained by
      comparing it with various available results in the literature. The
a b 2h 1 a b h 1 a b 2h 1
r 3xx r2xx ; ; ; r 1yy r1yy ; ; ; r  2yy r1yy ; ; ; numerical results show that the present model performs very well
2 2 5 q 2 2 2 q 2 2 5 q
    as other existing higher order layerwise deformation theories for
a b 2h 1  a 1 a 2h 1
r 3yy r2yy ; ; ; s1xz s2xz 0; ;0 ; s 2xz s2xz 0; ; ;
analyzing the global and interlaminar mechanical behaviour of
2 2 5 q 2 q 2 5 q multilayered sandwich and composite plates. Therefore, the pro-
posed theory may be extended to other types of multilayered
22a i
structures such as shells. Additionally, another advanced numeri-
The results are given in Tables 13, where various values of R cal calculation, such as meshless methods can be implemented
are considered (5, 10 and 15). based on the present higher-order layerwise shear deformation
The present formulation produces results that are in good theory.
agreement with all higher-order formulations and in good agree-
ment with the exact results, for the values of R considered as in gi- Acknowledgments
ven in Tables 13 and in Figs. 3 and 4.
Table 1 shows that the present results are better in normal and The rst and second authors have been nanced by the Portu-
shear stresses (r1xz and r2xz ) than Pandya and Kant [70] and Ferreira guese Foundation of Science and Technology under the contract
and Barbosa [71]. As expected, the presented layerwise nite ele- numbers SFRH/BD/66847/2009 and SFRH/BPD/47687/2008,
ment formulation is also good agreement with meshless layerwise respectively.
formulation provided by Roque et al. [57], and gives better results
than the equivalent single layer (ESL) nite element formulation Appendix A. Denition of matrices given in Eq. (10ac)
provided by Ferreira et al. [28] and Xiang et al. [58]. The ESL mesh-
less formulation used by Ferreira et al. [28] is based on Touratier 2 @N 3
shear deformation theory [46], and the one developed by Xiang @x
0 0 0 0 0 0
6 7
et al. [58] is based on several ESL theories (e.g. Reddy and Liu 6 0 0 0 0 07
Bkm 6 0
@N
@y 7;
[17], Touratier [51], Karama et al. [60]). Roque et al. [57] also 4 5
implemented a layerwise approach based on Touratier shear defor- @N @N
0 0 0 0 0
@y @x
mation theory [51].
Table 2 shows that the present model performs better in verti- 2 3
0 0 0 Ak @N
@x
0 Bk @N
@x
0
cal deection, normal and shear stresses, as also mentioned in Ta- 6 7
ble 1. This is also visible in Table 3. However, the differences are Bkm 6
40 0 0 0 Ak @N
@y
0 Bk @N 7
@y 5;
more pronounced, therefore, it can be inferred that when R in- 0 0 0 Ak @N
@y
Ak @N
@x
Bk @N
@y
@N
Bk @x
creases from 5 to 15, the present model performs much better than
Pandya and Kant [70], Ferreira and Barbosa [71], Ferreira et al. [28] 2 3
0 0 0  @N
@x
0 C k @N
@x
0
and Xiang et al. [58], and in good agreement with Roque et al. [57]. 6 7
It is important to note that, there are underestimated results Bkb 6
4
0 0 0 0  @N
@y
0 C k @N 7
@y 5;

reproduced by all the ESL meshless solutions [28,58] for R = 10 0 0 0  @N

@y
 @N
@x
C k @N
@y
@N
C k @x
and more pronounced for R = 15, as given in Table 3. This can be
attributed to the typical difculty of higher order shear deforma- 2 3
@N
0 0 0 0 0 @x
0
tion theories in absorbing the distortion of the normal [28]. For 6 @N 7
such cases, layerwise approaches as the one presented here or Bkb 6
4
0 0 0 0 0 0 7
@y 5 A:1 a d
@N @N
the one developed by Roque et al. [57] are recommended. 0 0 0 0 0 @y @x
The displacement and normalized stresses for a sandwich
square plate for R = 5 and R = 15 are presented in Figs. 3 and 4. It and
" #
can be noticed in both gures that the differences in mechanical 0 0 @N
N 0 CkN 0
properties between the core and the faces at the boundary inter- Bks @x
@N ;
0 0 0 N 0 CkN
faces. Figs. 3 and 4 also show the distribution of the transverse @y

shear stress, and it shows good agreement with the exact solution

provided by Srinivas [69], which indicates that the present trigono- 0 0 0 0 0 N 0
Bks : A:2 a b
metric layerwise formulation behaves very well. Similar comments 0 0 0 0 0 0 N
were inferred by Roque et al. [57] for the trigonometric layerwise  
shear deformation theory implemented by Arya et al. [54]. p h2
m ; p 2mR mR  1 sec 2 m ; A:3
Finally, an assessment of the present theory can be done by con- 2h 2
sidering the normal stress component rz. The present model can
further be extended to cover different multilayered structures such
as shells. Dynamic and buckling calculations can be also
performed.
Layer 1

h1 h2
a1 p 4h
;
5. Conclusions
A1 h1 h
2
2
;
A layerwise nite element formulation of a newly developed A:4 a d
higher-order shear deformation theory for the exure of thick mul- B1 p h22 mh1 ;
tilayered panels is presented. This paper presents for the rst time
a tangential trigonometric shear deformation theory for modelling C 1 2m;
the laminates composites and sandwiches. The discrete element
52 J.L. Mantari et al. / Computers and Structures 9495 (2012) 4553

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